Having a problem while using uTorrent and playing online games.

[Toprem]

Hello, I just recently started to use uTorrent because it uses a significant amount less of my RAM than Azureus uses, but a problem is occuring while playing online games (EverQuest is the only one I've played while running uTorrent atm). While running Azureus and downloading multiple torrents, I set my max UL to 30kB/s, to prevent it from causing an increased ping in my games. Using uTorrent and turning down my max UL to even 11kB/s with just a single torrent running, my ping shoots from 80 to 90 to 140 to 170 in EverQuest, running more than one causes it to shoot even higher (3 torrents got it to 270, max upload was still 11kB/s).

Does anyone know what the possible cause of this is and a way to fix it? I really like how little RAM uTorrent uses, because while playing EQ and running all the stuff I do and Azureus caused me to use about 75% to 90% of 2GB of RAM. I searched and was unable to find an answer to this problem, I might have missed it though if it has been asked.

[Switeck]

Firstly, are you behind a router and using UPnP?

Also, what software firewalls are you using, if any?

Having to connect through a router using UPnP causes alot of CPU activity as well as additional I/O overheads that can jack up pingtimes.

Software firewalls are the same way as EVERY packet has to be inspected (which takes time).

Simple port-forwarding at the router level is the quickest means I know of to get unfirewalled using µTorrent yet still offer a firewall to the rest of the internet.

Also, stuff like DHT enabled in µTorrent would cause some extra overheads that might raise pingtimes a bit.

How many connections per torrent and connections max are you allowing µTorrent to make?

Many=higher pingtimes, but not neccessarily faster download speeds.

Only about 30 connections per torrent is needed for your connection to get maxed out on decent torrents, if you're uploading fast enough.

Did you also limit download speed max? If you're downloading >50% max speed it causes slowdowns.

Lastly, how many uploads per torrent are you allowing?

Lots of uploads at once, even at low speeds each, causes pingtime increases.

At 11 KB/sec upload speeds if you really want to get fast download rates you probably shouldn't set uploads per torrent more than 3. Many BT clients will only upload to others at decent speeds if they are downloading from them at >3 KB/sec.

None of that is ISP-caused, it's just the way networking works on slow (sub-Mbit) connections, which your UPLOAD side is. BUT since you can upload at 30 KB/sec using Azereus but only 11 KB/sec on µTorrent there's other problems that may be ISP-caused. Still I don't know why they'd packet shape (throttle) µTorrent but not Azereus -- they both use the BitTorrent protocol.

[Guul Dukat]

Main problem in my case was the number of active connections on the computer, and it looks like a Windows problem.

I play MMORGs, too, and usually play on main computer, run utorrent on second one - both wireless access to a WLAN DSL router, port forwarding for utorrent to the second computer.

Due to WLAN I usually only have 140ms-150ms to my preferred MMORPG on "mainframe" when not d/l anything on second computer.

With running utorrent (or Azureus before) I start getting some higher pings on "mainframe" at uploads of more than approx. 2/3 max bandwidth *and* more than 1/3 of max downloadspeed *and* more than approx. 50 connections on the secondary - up to 200-220ms at downloads at 1/3 of max, uploads at 80% and number of connections less than 100. Anything higher than these settings (esp. uploads) result in extreme increase of ping on "mainframe".

Same settings for utorrent on the main computer (no other online activity on the other one) leads to incresed pings starting at approx. 20% of downloadspeed, 10% of upload speed - and it gets worse with each open (esp. active) connection (which looks like your mentioned problem of adding new torrents for upload without changing the u/l speed).

So only way to keep pings low is getting a second computer, connection via a good router and limit the speeds to decent levels.

[Toprem]

Not using a router or any firewalls.

edit: Also, even when I am barely getting DL speed above 10kB/s I was stilling getting a lot of lag in game.